Scented candles have seen a rise in negative reviews over the last few months – and they may just be the unexpected victims of COVID-19.
Research has found that there is a correlation between negative reviews left for scented candles and the rise in COVID-19 victims.
Without realising, customers are commenting on the absence of candle scent, forgetting that lack of smell is a symptom of the virus. Whoops.
This correlation was recently uncovered by Harvard Researcher, Kat Petrova, whose curiosity developed after angry customers complained that Yankee Candles were selling scented candles with no smell.
There are angry ladies all over Yankee Candle’s site reporting that none of the candles they just got had any smell at all. I wonder if they’re feeling a little hot and nothing has much taste for the last couple days too.
— Terri Nelson (@TerriDrawsStuff) November 24, 2020
What Petrova discovered was a pattern which showed a correlation between the bad sales of scented candles and the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year. When comparing the reviews of scented versus unscented candles, it’s clear that the former has taken a significant hit (previously averaging approximately 4.3/5 stars from January 2017-2020) – whilst unscented has maintained a steady median.
Could it be because of the COVID-related loss of smell? To investigate, I plotted the reviews of the 3 most popular unscented candles on Amazon*, and the difference was quite striking 3/n
*One thing to note: fewer reviews are available for unscented candles than for scented ones pic.twitter.com/D9NdknJJAU
— Kate Petrova (@kate_ptrv) November 27, 2020
This revelation appeared to spark some outrage in the candle community (who knew?), with customer reviews, particularly on Yankee Candle, being refuted with concerns about COVID-19. One comment made by Magaguy2020 simply stated: “you’ve got the rona, Karen”.
Poe’s law is amaaaaaaazing pic.twitter.com/PzsLD5cpxk
— Tim Pierce (@qwrrty) November 26, 2020
Oh DANG I am starting to feel sorry for Yankee Candle
— Terri Nelson (@TerriDrawsStuff) November 25, 2020
Petrova, who clearly has way too much time on her hands, takes the investigation one step further and looks into the growth of reviews mentioning ‘lack of scent’ and unveils that it has increased by approximately 6% this November.
Since the beginning of this year, the proportion of reviews mentioning lack of scent grew from < 2% in January to close to 6% in November. These numbers may not seem like much, but the trajectory of no-scent reviews over the last 11 months is certainly an interesting one 7/n pic.twitter.com/K5wEuM0boo
— Kate Petrova (@kate_ptrv) November 27, 2020
So, in an increasingly hot investigation, the evidence appears to suggest that candle companies have been burnt by the outbreak of COVID-19, and thus crowned the title of the “unexpected victims” of the virus. I mean, that is the logical conclusion, right?